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Report to the Rio Grande Compact Commission by USFWS

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Report to the Rio Grande Compact Commission by USFWS Report to the Rio Grande Compact Commission U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Activities in the Rio Grande Basin Calendar Year 2020 Releasing RGSM into the Rio Grande, NM U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region 2 P.O. Box 1306 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87103-1306 Prepared by Shawn Sartorius, Field Office Supervisor, New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 8, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 2 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Activities in the Rio Grande Basin ............................................... 1 Endangered Species Act Consultations .......................................................................................... 1 Implementation of the 2016 BiOp for MRG Water Ops and Maintenance .................................... 1 Federally-Listed and Candidate Species Updates ........................................................................... 1 Endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow ................................................................................... 1 Upper/Middle Rio Grande Basin ................................................................................................. 1 Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Rescue and Salvage ................................................................... 2 Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Augmentation and Monitoring .................................................. 4 Rio Grande Silvery Minnow in the Big Bend Region of the Lower Rio Grande .................... 9 Endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher .......................................................................... 10 Endangered New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse ................................................................. 11 Threatened Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo .............................................................................. 14 Rio Grande Chub (Gila pandora) and Rio Grande Sucker (Catostomus plebeius) ................... 16 Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis) ................................................. 16 Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program ........................................................................................ 16 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges along the MRG ................................ 16 Valle de Oro NWR .................................................................................................................... 21 Literature Cited ............................................................................................................................. 23 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Activities in the Rio Grande Basin During calendar year 2020, staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) from Ecological Services, Fish and Aquatic Conservation, and our National Wildlife Refuge System conducted activities associated with fish and wildlife conservation and management including: 1. Activities directly involving the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus; silvery minnow), endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher), the endangered New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius luteus; jumping mouse); the threatened western distinct population segment of Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus; cuckoo); and, other federally-listed or candidate species in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) and Lower Rio Grande (LRG); 2. Conducting formal consultations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA); 3. Cooperative efforts by the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program; 4. Activities by staff of the Service’s National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) along the MRG. Endangered Species Act Consultations In 2020, the Ecological Services conducted eleven informal consultations, three formal consultations, and provided over 862 species lists letters for projects within the MRG. We continue to implement the automated Information, Planning, and Conservation System (IPAC) at https://ecos.fws.gov/ipac/. The IPAC allows federal, state, tribal agencies, and the public, to view federally listed species by a project area in a county, or conduct informal ESA consultation, as appropriate. Implementation of the 2016 BiOp for MRG Water Ops and Maintenance On December 2, 2016, the Ecological Services finalized a Biological and Conference Opinion (2016 BiOp) for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), State of New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (NMISC; along with the Office of the State Engineer), and Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) on their proposed water management and maintenance activities along the MRG in central New Mexico. During 2020, we have been working with Reclamation and their partners implementing activities described in the 2016 BiOp. Specifically, we attended water operations calls, participated with the various teams and groups associated with the Collaborative Program, reviewed the Lower Reach Plan, the Escondida Habitat Restoration Project, the channel realignment project on Bosque del Apache NWR, and fish passage concepts at the San Acacia Diversion Dam. We also utilized a process to delegate certain monitoring activities that were exempted by the 2016 BiOp. Federally-Listed and Candidate Species Updates Endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Upper/Middle Rio Grande Basin The New Mexico FWCO conducts research and long-term monitoring investigations of fishery resources in the Rio Grande Basin and provides technical management expertise to other Federal agencies and Native American Tribes and Pueblos. Within the Rio Grande Basin, these projects 1 are mostly related to conservation of the federally endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus). The Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (RGSM) currently occupies only about seven percent of its historic habitat; a 280-kilometer (174-mile) stretch of the Rio Grande from Cochiti Dam to the upper most portions of Elephant Butte Reservoir (USFWS 2010). Decline of this species is primarily attributed to destruction and modification of its habitat as a result of dewatering and diversion of water, water impoundment, and channelization (USFWS 2010). Competition with, and predation by, introduced nonnative species, water degradation, and other factors such as global climate change have also contributed to its decline (USFWS 2010). Projects undertaken in FY 2020 included: coordination and implementation of RGSM rescue and salvage, coordination of hatchery augmentation, a study on the effects of mechanical pumping and simulated drying on Rio Grande Silvery Minnow and the fish assemblage downstream of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Rescue and Salvage Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (RGSM) Hybognathus amarus are often trapped in isolated pools during times of river drying from June to October each year in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) in New Mexico. Rescue of RGSM is performed by staff from the New Mexico Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NMFWCO) with assistance and coordination from several other agencies. Rio Grande Silvery Minnow are collected from isolated pools each day and transported on utility terrain vehicles equipped with water tanks and supplied with pure oxygen. Rescued RGSM are then transported and released into areas with continuous flows. Rescued RGSM are classified as either dead or alive, hatchery or wild origin, and adult or young-of-year based on their standard length. River drying began early in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fish were not rescued until June 8th, though drying began approximately one week earlier. Between 1 June and 13 August 2020, we conducted rescue activities on 41.7 unique miles of main channel of the MRG that became intermittent. All miles were within the San Acacia Reach. However, several miles were not rescued near Abeytas and on Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. We rescued 3,914 live RGSM. Of these, 29 were young-of-year (YOY) RGSM, 76 were hatchery-reared RGSM, and 3,809 wild RGSM. In addition, we found 136 dead RGSM during river intermittency. Spring run-off was low, resulting in few YOY in 2020. The 2019 cohort was collected in moderate numbers, but fewer than would have been expected when compared to the 2018 cohort rescued in 2019. Lack of spring runoff combined with early and extensive low- flows may have contributed to lower than expected numbers of adult RGSM encountered during fish rescue in 2020. Trends in the declining numbers of RGSM halted in 2015, rebounded in 2016, and in 2017 RGSM became the most common fish in our collections (Figure 4). We found more RGSM per km (0.6 miles) in 2017 than in any year since 2007. Recruitment in 2018 was near zero, and collections were almost entirely composed of adult fish. In 2020, the number of adult fish was about what was expected after 2019. However, 2020 was very similar to 2018, a very early dry season following a very wet year, but compared to 2018, we found far fewer adults in 2020. Recruitment was unsurprisingly low in 2020, due to poor spring runoff (Figure 1). 2 Figure 1.Number of young of year (YOY), hatchery marked adult, and wild adult Rio Grande Silvery Minnow collected per km during salvage activities in the Middle Rio Grande in 2009-2019 and average daily discharge (m3s-1) in the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, NM (USGS gage 08330000). The number
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